To dream, perchance to go to Victoria Film Festival gala

The Victoria Film Festival's opening gala on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, had a dream theme.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

The scene at the Victoria Film Festival's opening gala on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Patricia Sims and Michael Clark, who collaborated on the documentary When Elephants Were Young, at the Victoria Film Festival Patrons Reception in the Fairmont Empress Hotel on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Maureen O'Neill, dressed as can-can dancer, with Lyndsay Green, who came as a Venetian Mardi Gras partygoer.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Marni Jackson, Canadian author and co-writer of Al Purdy Was Here, and Brian D. Johnson, the film's director, at the Victoria Film Festival Patrons Reception in the Fairmont Empress Hotel on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Telmo Miranda and Mary Galloway at the Victoria Film Festival Patrons Reception in the Fairmont Empress Hotel on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Sheena MacDonald, chief operating officer of the Canadian Film Centre, and Pat Ferns, Victoria Film Festival vice-president and director of the festival's Springboard Industry program.

Photograph By
DARREN STONE, Times Colonist

Director Chloe Sosa-Sims, left, and Margot Todhunter, the subject of the documentary Dan and Margot, which had its world première here.

“It died almost 100 years ago,” said Green, jokingly deflecting any criticism for wearing a ermine stole worn by her great aunt on the Atlantic City boardwalk in the 1920s.

Familiar faces included Canadian filmmakers Patricia Rozema, Larry Weinstein and Brian D. Johnson, the former Maclean’s film critic whose documentary Al Purdy Was Here is being shown.

He commended the iconic Canadian poet’s guarded 90-year-old widow, Eurithe, for her participation despite being asked some tough questions.

“As a journalist, I’ve interviewed every celebrity under the sun, and I’ve got to say, with admiration and respect, that Eurithe Purdy is the toughest interview I’ve ever done — with the possible exception of Tommy Lee Jones,” he said. “Eurithe could say more in a few seconds of silence than most people would in a paragraph.”

Irdens Exantus, the charming Montreal-based actor who made his acting debut as a Haitian intern to a hapless northern Quebec MP (Patrick Huard) in My Internship in Canada, was mobbed by newfound fans.

“I learned a lot from Patrick,” said Extantus, 21. “Everybody was very happy. Everybody was cool with him, nobody stressing. For my first movie, I couldn’t ask for more.”

“The last time I was in Victoria was in 1977,” Falardeau said, confessing he didn’t remember much. “I guess a lot of you are saying, ‘Well, our city has changed a lot since then.’ Or maybe it hasn’t.”

Toronto filmmakers Chloe Sosa-Sims and Jake Chirico, and Margot Todhunter, whose schizophrenia diagnosis is the subject of their documentary Dan and Margot, were excited about having its world première here.

“Victoria was one of the first festivals to get on board and really embrace the film,” Sosa-Sims said.

“There’s something about the intimacy of this festival that makes emerging filmmakers feel very comfortable.”